Tisoy to be removed from list of cyclone names

MANILA, Philippines — The state weather bureau will retire the name Tisoy from the country’s list of tropical cyclone names after it left massive damage to infrastructure and agriculture early this month.

Raymond Ordinario, senior weather specialist at the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), said the agency will come up with a new name by January.

Tisoy’s damage to crops was estimated at P3.67 billion, according to the Department of Agriculture.

PAGASA decommissions or delists the name of a cyclone when it has met at least one of these two requirements: at least 300 deaths and P1 billion worth of damage to agriculture and infrastructure.

PAGASA has four sets of tropical cyclone names that are used alternately.

The agency also prepared an auxiliary list in case the number of tropical cyclones within the year exceeds 25.

Some of the decommissioned names include Tropical Storm Ondoy (Ketsana) in 2009 and Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in 2013.

The decommissioning of “extraordinarily destructive storms” has been practiced by PAGASA since February 1979.

Meanwhile, Ordinario said no weather disturbance is expected to affect the country until the weekend.

The northeast monsoon, however, will continue to bring light rains over Cagayan Valley, Cordillera Administrative Region, Aurora and Quezon.

Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon will experience partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated light rains.

The Visayas and Mindanao will also have partly cloudy to cloudy skies with isolated rainshowers due to thunderstorms.